In another attempt to speed up mobile services rollout across a vast country, an effort made even more urgent given the imminent arrival of 5G, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has again amended the rules concerning right of way (RoW).

Given the likelihood that 5G will require many more small cells and much more use of street furniture, RoW application procedures for small cells have been simplified. Telecom licensees will be able to use street infrastructure to deploy telecom equipment at a specified cost: Rs150 (US$1.88) per year in rural areas and Rs300 (US$3.76) per year in urban areas.

There will also be a nominal cost of Rs100 per year (US$1.25) to install overground optical fibre on street furniture. However, operators do not require government approval for an agreement with private property owners for installation of telecoms infrastructure. Administrative fees have also been rationalised.

In addition the IT systems of all states or union territories and major infrastructure ministries such as railways and highways have been integrated with the central RoW portal to make India ready for 5G launch.

Called Sugam Sanchar, the centralised RoW portal offers a single interface for ISPs, mobile operators and infrastructure providers to apply for right of way (RoW) approvals for installing infrastructure

These ongoing improvements have apparently already resulted in a reduction in average time for approval of RoW applications, from 435 days in 2019 to 16 days in July, 2022 according to the telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Welcoming the changes, SP Kochhar, director general of the operator-led group COAI, was quoted by India’s Economic Times as saying: « Access to the existing infrastructure, deployment of new infrastructure, and the high cost involved in it were major challenges the telecom sector always came across which will now be eased down with new RoW rules, »  

This does seem like a major achievement on the part of the DoT, especially when one considers that in early 2020 many states were simply ignoring RoW rules.

Three Zambian mobile operators, MTN Zambia, Airtel Networks Zambia and Zamtel, have reportedly set up an industry lobby group called The Global System for Mobile Association of Zambia (GSMAZ).

its aim is to influence the efficient development and sustained growth of a strong and vibrant mobile telecommunications sector in Zambia. Digital inclusion, it points out, will promote infrastructure and economic growth, boost employment and productivity across the country, and enhance access to essential services like healthcare and education.

MTN Zambia chief executive officer and current GSMAZ chairperson Bart Hofker said at the launch that the formation of the GSMAZ will promote effective cooperation and partnership among operators and various stakeholders.

Meanwhile Airtel Zambia managing director Apoorva Mehrotra pointed out that a siloed, ‘competitive’ approach among operators is giving way to a more collaborative approach to advance industry concerns and to elevate the profile of mobile telecommunications in Zambia.

The GSMAZ says it will collaborate with regulator ZICTA, local government and other organizations to promote policies that encourage the growth of the digital economy.

But for how much longer will Zamtel be in a healthy enough state to be part of this group? Recent reports indicate that the country’s president, Hakainde Hichilema, has appointed a working group to determine the future of the state-run, financially troubled operator.

This working group will, according to ITWeb Africa, investigate the viability of the company and suggest appropriate action to save it. While there is little other detail, this is encouraging news for an operator that reportedly needs a recapitalisation of some US$265 million in order to survive, and has no funds with which to modernise or even maintain its current infrastructure.

For the moment then, it seems that a sale is not likely. Given its debts, however, a convincing rescue plan for Zamtel still seems a long way off.

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This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Todd Kiehn, SVP Global Product Management, GTT

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State-owned Indian operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is apparently planning to sell 10,000 of its 68,000 towers with an estimated value of 4,000 crore (about US$501 million).

The sale will help it to meet targets laid out as part of what is called its national monetisation pipeline (NMP). KPMG is expected to have a role as financial advisor ahead of the sale.

BSNL provides telecom services in every part of the country except Mumbai and Delhi where another state-run company, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), operates.

According to India’s Economic Times, BSNL is only selling towers that have co-location arrangements with third party telecom service providers such as Reliance Jio and Airtel. Nearly 70% of BSNL’s towers are fiberised and ready for deployment for 4G and 5G services, making them appealing to potential buyers.

Although it has not been specifically stated, tower infrastructure sharing or leaseback would be the likeliest way for BSNL to continue offering services without having to manage so much passive infrastructure. In any case, as part of NMP targets, BSNL has to sell 13,567 towers by financial year 2025 and MTNL has to sell 1,350 towers.

The context for this activity is an attempt to revive the fortunes of the loss-making BSNL. This includes a recent massive infusion of government money into BSNL and a planned merger of BSNL with special purpose vehicle Bharat Broadband Network to boost rural connectivity and increase broadband penetration.

However, most of the money given to BSNL appears to be directed at 4G service provision. The government has insisted that BSNL uses made in India 4G and 5G, which potentially puts it at a disadvantage compared to major private operators. As does the 4G timescale: a pan-India 4G rollout by BSNL is still at least 18 months away.

The long-awaited launch of services by Ethiopia’s new mobile operator Safaricom Ethiopia is due to take place this month. Meanwhile, state-owned incumbent operator Ethio Telecom is continuing to upgrade its offering. The latest improvement involves a new fraud management system to replace the operator’s legacy system.

In this case it’s Indian company Subex, which describes itself as a pioneer in driving AI-led digital trust, that has been selected by Ethio Telecom to deploy a fraud management solution built on Subex’s AI orchestration platform, HyperSense.

This new solution will replace Ethio Telecom’s existing legacy fraud management system, enabling the company, Subex says, to move from a traditional rules-based approach to an AI-first approach. This approach will, in turn, enable the operator to detect new and unknown threats in real time.

The Subex system, which leverages AI in every step of the fraud management process, will allow Ethio Telecom to bring in enhanced accuracy, coverage and time-to-detect. These capabilities will, in turn, enable the operator to adopt a proactive approach to combatting risks such as SIM box, spoofing, SMS frauds, roaming frauds, subscription frauds, device frauds, mobile money risk and credit risk management. Ethio Telecom has already deployed a business assurance system from Subex, so will now be able to consolidate its revenue assurance and fraud management approach to ensure the breaking down of silos and enhance operational efficiency.

With Subex’s fraud management solution on HyperSense, Ethio Telecom will be able to improve fraud coverage across its various business lines, leverage explainable AI capabilities to enhance customer experience, and make quick, data-driven decisions with advanced visualization and dashboarding capabilities. It will also be able to cater to new business requirements thanks to the system’s scalability and elasticity, and benefit from rolling upgrades – meaning it will eliminate long and expensive upgrade cycles. Finally, says Subex, it can reduce TCO with open-source components and a low hardware footprint.